“Dog Brain,” or as it was originally presented to me, “Lizard Brain” is acting with minimal thinking. I switch the name lizard brain to dog brain not as an insult or infringement to the instructor who uses it in his class, but rather to help clarify and solidify the concept with more commonly understood imagery. Recall the drive to work this morning. Is every turn from leaving home to arriving at work vividly remembered? More than once I have reached a destination driven to many times and thought, “How did I get here? I don’t remember a thing about my drive!” As will become evident, that is just one example of dog brain.
Dogs act hilariously and strangely daily. The proverbial chasing of the tail, circling before laying, playing for hours then suddenly become distracted by a neighbor walking down the street are but a few instances that come to mind. I can only imagine not all of these actions are thought through by individual dogs. Rather, they often just do them.
In the municipal office, less hilarious but equally strange actions can be observed. Take the date stamping of a standard 7.5 by 11.5 inch clasp envelope 14 times. While equally exhilarating for the average government worker as it is for the dog chasing its tail, one is compelled to question whether in an alternative universe an independent auditor will just have to deal with having to twist and turn an envelope to find one of the two conveniently centrally located date stamps on both sides.
Additionally, it is embarrassing when a bank transfer mistake is identified, but when correcting the faulty transfer, having to make six separate note (three physically and three electronically) for each of the incorrect transfer, the reverse transfer, and the correct transfer becomes daunting. The number of notes increases when the incorrect transfer and the reverse along with the correct transfers occur on different days. While it is easy to understand the purpose of the multi-notation process – to create an easy to follow trail for internal and independent auditors – it is reminiscent of the dog circling before laying down: it serves a logical purpose but in most situations is more than sufficient.
In an era where stewards of public monies are called on to consider efficiency as precedent, it is equally the duty of those who perform the tasks that stimulate dog brain as it is the duty of managers assigning tasks to identify and eliminate time inefficient procedures. Governments are adjusting to the new normal of having fewer staff to perform the same or more work. While it is not necessary to relive the era of classic scientific management by using a stopwatch to clock task times, an occasional conversation with management and reworking of standard operating procedures could result in government productivity increases per full-time equivalent.
Per the usual, my suggestion to readers and public employees is simple. If the organizational culture supports open conversations with managers, when inefficiencies are identified and an alternative is available to reduce but not eliminate the excess of time spent over benefit, speak up. Taking this a step further, suggest not only a reduction in time inefficiencies but also an increase in time efficiency for an aggregated multiplied benefit. Perhaps this is as simple as suggesting an extra column of information on a spread sheet to reduce (1) the time spent thinking about the correct date and (2) the incidence of date-related mistakes that initiate the process of multi-notation by increasing efficiency. As some good writers use as style, I will leave a cliffhanger here and save that story for the future.
